Our pastor, Rev. Lant B. Davis, came to serve Central Presbyterian Church in August 2005.  We call him “Pastor Lant,” or just “Lant.”  A native of Birmingham, Alabama, he received his undergraduate degree from Duke University (B.A. 1976).  Following that, he studied law at Yale Law School (J.D. 1979), after which he moved back to Birmingham to practice law with Bradley Arant Rose & White LLP (now Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP), where he led the firm’s health law group.

Lant’s wife, Amanda Neel Davis, also grew up in Birmingham.  She is a graduate of Hollins College and holds a masters degree in Mathematics from the University of Alabama in Birmingham and a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from the University of Louisville.  Amanda and Lant were married in 1982, and their only child, son Lee Neel Davis, was born in 1983.  Having been raised as a Southern Baptist, Lant became a Presbyterian when he joined Amanda’s home church.  All three were active in the church—Lant as a member of the board of deacons, the session, the choir, and a pastor nominating committee, and as scoutmaster of the church-sponsored Boy Scout troop; Amanda as a church school teacher and vacation Bible school leader; and Lee as a member of the youth group and scout troop.

After 19 years as a lawyer, Lant felt God calling him more deeply into the service of the church.  In 1998, with the generous concurrence of Amanda and Lee, he moved the family to Louisville, Kentucky, in order to enroll in Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.  He thoroughly enjoyed his time there, serving as a student teaching assistant in Hebrew, Greek, and Old Testament.  After graduation (M.Div. 2001), he accepted the seminary’s call to remain on campus and serve as assistant to the president, to which position he was ordained in 2001 as a Minister of Word and Sacrament.  (Since 2007  he has served on the board of trustees of the seminary, where he has chaired the Academic Affairs Committee and the committee for revision of the seminary’s governing documents.)

Meanwhile, Lee completed high school and enrolled at Yale University, where he majored in history and served as president of the Yale Glee Club.  After college Lee worked for Epic Systems (Madison, Wisconsin), a company that develops and markets software to hospitals and major medical clinics.  In August 2007 Lee enrolled in Duke Law School in Durham, North Carolina, where he served as an article editor on the Duke Law Journal.  After graduation from law school in 2010, Lee moved to Washington, D.C., where, after a judicial clerkship, he became an associate in the Vinson & Elkins LLP law firm.  In August 2010 Lee married his college classmate, Jennifer Catena of Lawrenceville, New Jersey.   Proud father Lant officiated!

From 2006 until 2011 Amanda taught at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, just across the Wabash River from Terre Haute.  In the fall of 2011, she became a Special Purpose member of the Faculty at Indiana State University, where she teaches Mathematics Education courses in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.  Her current research interests center on teacher and program development in early childhood mathematics.  Amanda is active in Terre Haute, working with organizations that support the Sheldon Swope Art Museum and the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra.  At Central she serves on the Christian Nurture Commission and has been very active in family ministries, especially the weekly prayer group.

Lant and Amanda enjoy Terre Haute and frequently remark upon the hospitality they have experienced in the church and in the community. Lant enjoys music, exercising, and boating.  Amanda loves art and sometimes does her own paintings.  Both enjoy reading, movies, and traveling.  Lant and Amanda (and their dog “Pearl,” a very active Manchester terrier) reside at 2100 Ohio Boulevard, Terre Haute, Indiana 47803.  Their home telephone number is (812) 235-7026.